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As the saying goes, you have to play it to win it. The problem is choosing which lottery to play! There are hundreds of lotteries in the UK – the Gambling Commission records 520 licensed lotteries in total – and many other international lottos too.

The question is what do you want from your lottery? Do you want to play the for the Euro Millions jackpot and aim for the big money, but going against a lot of other players? Do you want a smaller scale lottery, where the competition is less, but the winnings are reasonable? Maybe you want a lottery that gives to charity?

Whether it's Euro Millions or Postcode Pounds, our guide will point you in the right direction.

The Best The UK Lottery Has To Offer

Below, we've got the best there is to offer for UK lottery fanatics. From the big players like Euro Millions lottery, all the way to the smaller jackpots that you may have never heard of; we have everything the UK lottery scene has to offer.

People’s Postcode Lottery

You’d recognise this one from their heartwarming TV advertisements. There’s no lucky numbers involved here, as your entry ticket consists of your postcode and a unique three-digit number. It is subscription-based, which means you can register your postcode once and be automatically entered into five draws a month!

The monthly £2,000,000 jackpot is also shared between all players in one postcode area, with a maximum payout of £400,000 per person. This means that you’ll share this jackpot prize with your neighbours (those who’ve bought tickets). Your chances are the same whether or not there are many houses on your street. Buying more tickets just increases the amount of money you can win. You can’t increase your chances of winning by buying more lines, as you would with the Lotto.

Games

Every day

Good causes

50p from every £2 (25%) goes to charity. This lottery supports a 63 different charity organisations; ranging from animals, children, Africa, army heroes, the environment and sports.

Ticket Price

£2 per ticket, or £10 per month.

Prizes

£2,000,000 monthly jackpot, five daily £1,000 prizes, £25,000 for every winning ticket on Saturdays and 15,000 £10 prizes on Sundays. There are also monthly holidays and BMW giveaway.

Odds

About 1 in 162,000

How to Play

Sign up online at www.postcodelottery.co.uk and pay monthly in advance by direct debit, credit/debit card or Paypal.

Euro Millions

Euro Millions is always guaranteed to offer a massive jackpot. The kitty is drawn from ticket sales across Europe, meaning that record breaking lottery jackpots are a common occurrence.

Both UK players, and those throughout the continent are able to purchase tickets for and win Euro Millions. One of the easiest places to buy your tickets is at the Lotter -- a one-stop lottery shop, where you can quickly and easily buy tickets for Euro Millions and dozens of other draws.

Games

Every Tuesday and Friday

Good causes

28% of all proceeds from the entire Lottery fund goes towards good causes. The fund has supported 430,000 projects across the UK in several different areas. The distribution of funds is decided by 12 independent lottery distributors, such as Arts Council and UK Sport. Learn more about them at www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

Ticket Price

£2.50 (incl. free entry into the raffles)

Prizes

5 main numbers + 2 lucky stars - Jackpot - 1 in 139,838,160

5 numbers + 1 lucky star - £227,848.80 - 1 in 6,991,908

5 numbers - £23,586.00 - 1 in 3,107,515

4 numbers + 2 lucky stars - £2,307.30 - 1 in 621,503

4 numbers + 1 lucky star - £123.00 - 1 in 31,076

3 numbers + 2 lucky stars - £78.00 - 1 in 14,126

4 numbers - £43.30 - 1 in 13,812

2 numbers + 2 lucky stars - £14.20 - 1 in 986

3 numbers + 1 lucky star - £10.70 - 1 in 707

3 numbers - £9.00 - 1 in 314

1 number + 2 lucky stars - £7.60 - 1 in 188

2 numbers + 1 lucky star - £6.00 - 1 in 50

2 numbers - £3.30 - 1 in 22

Odds

1 in 139,838,160 for the EuroMillions Jackpot

How to Play

Buy your ticket from any one of the 46,000 retailers, play online/on mobile at www.national-lottery.co.uk, or set up continuous Direct Debit. (* There has been less-than-favourable reviews about the Lotto website.)

How to Check Results

Tune into the TV draw on BBC 1 from 20:00 GMT, set up an email subscription, check on site, check in papers such as Express, Mirror, Star.

How are Winnings Paid

Up to £500 will be deposited straight into your National Lottery account and be available to withdraw however you want. £501 and up will need to be confirmed with the National Lottery Customer Care team, at which point it will be transferred directly to your bank account

UK National Lottery

This is UK’s first and most popular lottery. There are several games under the National Lottery brand – EuroMillions, Lotto, Lotto Hot Picks and Thunderball; each with different jackpot sizes and slightly different rules. Together, these games produce over six million winners every week and have made 3,700 millionaires since its launch in 1994. 70% of adults in the UK play lotto on a regular basis! With so many players, they raise £33 million a week for charity and £20 billion since its inception.

If you’re aiming for life-changing prizes, play the UK National Lottery. Jackpots are always in the seven-figures and continuously rollover if they are not won in a draw; there are fifty £20,000 prizes up for grabs each week too. Another appealing part of the Lotto is that you get a free entry into the Lotto Raffles with every ticket. The EuroMillions ticket gives you a free entry into the Millionaire Maker draw, which guarantees two millionaires a week!

However, its popularity also means that the odds of actually winning prizes are much lower. The odds of winning the Lotto jackpot is 1 in 14 million. The odds of winning the smaller prizes are decent – 1 in 9 for the £5 prize in the Lotto HotPicks. It also makes more statistical sense to play HotPicks over Thunderball. These odds and rewards are comparable to that of mobile slots. I suppose lotteries (and the National Lottery in particular) is a beacon of hope, as the process is so drawn out. You have to choose five numbers or predict lucky numbers, buy tickets and keep them safely in your wallet, check the newspapers for the draw results or watch the live draw on TV. All this as opposed to watching the spinning slot reel for 3 seconds.

Games

Every Wednesday and Saturday

Good causes

28% of all Lottery fund proceeds goes towards good causes. The fund has supported 430,000 projects across the UK in several different areas. The distribution of funds is decided by 12 independent lottery distributors, such as Arts Council and UK Sport. Learn more about them at www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

Ticket Price

£2 (incl. free entry into the raffles) for Lotto, £1 for Lotto HotPicks

Prizes

Lotto Draw

6 numbers - Jackpot - 1 in 45,057,474

5 numbers + Bonus - £50,000 - 1 in 7,509,579

5 numbers - £1,000 - 1 in 144,415

4 numbers - £100 - 1 in 2,180

3 numbers - £25 - 1 in 97

2 numbers - Free ticket - 1 in 10.3

Lotto HotPicks

5 numbers - £350,000 - 1 in 317,000

4 numbers - £13,000 - 1 in 14,000

3 numbers - £800 - 1 in 922

2 numbers - £60 - 1 in 79

1 number - £6 - 1 in 9

Odds

1 in 14 million for the Lotto Jackpot

Odds for Lotto: 1 in 54 for winning any prize

Odds for Lotto HotPicks: 1 in 9 for £6 prize, 1 in 79 for £60, 1 in 922 for £800, 1 in 14,000 for £13,000, 1 in 317,000 for £350,000

How to Play

Buy your ticket from any one of the 46,000 retailers, play online/on mobile at www.national-lottery.co.uk, or set up continuous Direct Debit. (* There has been less-than-favourable reviews about the Lotto website.)

How to Check Results

Tune into the TV draw on BBC 1 at 19:40 GMT, set up an email subscription, check on site, check in papers such as Express, Mirror, Star.

How are Winnings Paid

Up to £500 will be deposited straight into your National Lottery account and be available to withdraw however you want. £501 and up will need to be confirmed with the National Lottery Customer Care team, at which point it will be transferred directly to your bank account

Thunderball

Thunderball was started in 1999 and is still going strong as one of the pillars of the National Lottery brand. Unlike its lottery cousins, the National Lottery and EuroMillions, the Thunderball draw is designed to be a consistent prize giveaway. The winner of the Thunderball always gets £500,000, with no sharing the jackpot among any other winners. There's no pool of prizes to be shared with the Thunderball; if you get the required numbers then you get the listed prize.

It's this prize certainty which has made the Thunderball an absolute staple of the lottery world. The Thunderball offers lower prizes, but comes with a higher chance of winning something, which doesn't have to be watered down between other players.

You can play the Thunderball every day and then look forward to 3 weekly draws. The Thunderball draw even has a direct debit service where you can set up a direct debit to cover 8 weeks of play, with your final direct debit covering any Thunderball tickets that you've bought during that period.

There's even a lucky dip feature if you play online, so you don't even have to worry about which numbers you pick either. You'll even receive an email notification on your National Lottery account if you win, so you don't even have to check the results if you don't want to.

Games

Every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

Good Causes

28% of all Lottery fund proceeds goes towards good causes. The fund has supported 430,000 projects across the UK in several different areas. The distribution of funds is decided by 12 independent lottery distributors, such as Arts Council and UK Sport. Learn more about them at www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

Ticket Price

£1

Prizes

£500,000 grand prize, with other set prizes depending on how many numbers and thunderballs you get

Odds & Prizes

5 numbers + Thunderball - £500,000 - 1 in 8,060,598

5 numbers - £5,000 - 1 in 620,046

4 numbers + Thunderball - £250 - 1 in 47,416

4 numbers - £100 - 1 in 3,648

3 numbers + Thunderball - £20 - 1 in 1,437

3 numbers - £10 - 1 in 111

2 numbers + Thunderball - £10 - 1 in 135

1 number + Thunderball - £5 - 1 in 35

Thunderball only - £3 - 1 in 29

How to Play

Buy your ticket from any one of the 46,000 retailers, play online/on mobile at www.national-lottery.co.uk, or set up continuous Direct Debit. (* There has been less-than-favourable reviews about the Lotto website.)

How to Check Results

Tune into the TV draw on BBC 1 from 22:00 GMT, results shown again on BBC 1 at 22:30 GMT, set up an email subscription, check on site, check in papers such as Express, Mirror, Star.

How are Winnings Paid

Up to £500 will be deposited straight into your National Lottery account and be available to withdraw however you want. £501 and up will need to be confirmed with the National Lottery Customer Care team, at which point it will be transferred directly to your bank account

National Irish Lottery

As you would expect, this lottery funds various charities and projects around Ireland. So, you’d choose this one over other lotteries if you were Irish. There is a minimum jackpot of €2 million, and no maximum to the number of rollovers! (Compare this to the Health Lottery where there is a prize cap of £100,000) You are also 40% more likely to win the Irish Lottery. Another difference: you have to be 18 to play the lotto.

Games

9 different games, which includes the National Lottery draws such as the Lotto, EuroMillions and 5-4-3-2-1, all focused on an Irish audience . The main draws occur every Wednesday and Saturday

Good causes

To date, €4.4 billion has been raised for good causes around Ireland! These include projects in the areas of Youth, Sport, Recreation and Amenities, Health and Welfare, Arts, Culture and National Heritage and the Irish Language

Ticket Price

€3 for the Lotto, €2 for EuroMillions

Prizes

Minimum jackpot of €2,000,000. Smaller prizes are around €5.

Odds

1 in 8,000,000 for the jackpot1 in 1,300,000 for €25,0001 in 48 for the smallest prize of €51 in 42 for winning any prize

How to Play

Play online at www.lottery.ie or on your mobile, or buy a ticket from one of the selected high street stores in Ireland

How to Check Results

Tune into the TV draw on RTE One or check on their site

How are Winnings Paid

Prizes are paid into your online account or posted via cheque. Otherwise, you can redeem prizes at any National Lottery retailer or dedicated post offices. Larger prizes are claimed at the headquarters in Dublin.

Lottery Betting

Now, let’s combine the thrill of lottos with the sophistication of mobile casinos and betting sites. The top UK bookmakers allow you to bet on the lottery results, often offering extra bonuses and higher odds too. Your potential returns are far higher than what you’d get on a regular lottery stake. You can play on your mobile device or on your computer, and you can trust that these major bookmakers have reliable and easy-to-use software. The flip side is that you are tied to their terms and conditions, such as maximum payouts per draw or bonus conditions.

A Final Piece of UK Lottery Advice

The general rule is: the bigger the jackpot, the harder it is to win. If you’d be satisfied with a few thousand quid, it’d be statistically wiser to play the smaller lotteries, as these offer better odds at winning.

It is also a good strategy to focus your funds on a certain lottery, as opposed to spreading your money over different games and different draws. So the real advice is choose a lottery and stick with it. The more you spread the money, the more you'll end up losing in the process. If you're going to play, it's best to play smart.

If you had a lucky day and decided to purchase a lottery ticket, or if you do so as part of your weekly routine then your life is about to get a whole lot easier! If you haven’t discovered that you can play the lottery online UK edition, then you are in for a pleasant surprise. You can buy, store and access your tickets and games online and on your mobile device. This makes winning big and early retirement a little more in reach!

How to Find the Best Lotto Sites UK

In order to find the best mobile lottery or lotto UK, it is important to be well informed about different companies’ policies, jackpots, games and offerings. Here are some of the ways to find the best lotto sites for you and your needs/wants:

Company Sites: Exploring the lotto site provides a great way to discover whether or not the site is legitimate, whether it has what you’re looking for and whether it offers you a user experience that is well suited for your playing style. Take the time to explore different pages and read different descriptions and company information. Being an informed consumer is just as important when buying a lottery ticket as it is when purchasing any big-ticket item.

Expert and Player Reviews: Other players offer valuable insight into the pros and cons of a lotto site. For players in the UK, check out AndroidSlots for quality insights into some of the top lotto sites in the UK and available to UK players.

Why Play Lottery Online?

When it comes to playing the lottery, going online or using your phone to buy, check and store your ticket may not be your first instinct. However, there are many benefits to doing so and to leveraging the power of the internet to help you on your quest to become a millionaire. Here are some of the top reasons to play lottery online UK:

Choice | Players have more choice in terms of games and offerings which thereby allow more opportunities to win big and retire early or buy that boat you’ve had your eye on for years!

Convenience | Playing online or on your phone means that you never have to wonder “where did I put that ticket?!” again. Many online lotto’s keep your tickets and games stored in one, easy to access place that gives you peace of mind and ease of access.

Bonus Plays | Like other online gambling activities, online lotto sites offer different promotions and bonuses that players may not otherwise have access to if they chose to play offline.

How to Buy Lottery Tickets Online

If you’re new to the world of buying a lottery ticket online, worry not as we have included some pro tips on how to purchase a basic lottery ticket online for national lotteries. Remember that the site simply facilitates the purchase of the lottery ticket, and does not make or modify any of the regulation associated with online gambling:

Step

Explanation

1

Find a site that works for you and that offers legitimate, legal and promising lottery tickets. This could be a website or a national lottery app for your phone.

2

Choose the ticket or game. For the purposes of these instructions, let’s say you’re choosing standard lottery tickets (as opposed to a scratch card or sports bet).

3

Choose your numbers. Pick lotto numbers that are random or choose your favourite numbers. Whether you have a lucky number, you choose your wife’s birthday, or you close your eyes and roll a dice, pick numbers that you are confident in.

4

Choose a draw. Pick the draws you would like to participate in. Many national lotteries have draws once or twice a week.

5

Scan ticket or check ticket. You can do this on the website, by printing and scanning the ticket or by using your mobile app or your phone.

What Happens if I Win?

Have you ever wondered what happens if and when you win the lottery? Though the odds of winning are slim, many people’s lives have changed entirely when they find out they’ve won.

Usually, the first thing you have to do in the UK is to call the number on your ticket to claim that you’ve won. Your call will be directed to the call centre where the staff are prepared and trained to deal with lottery related questions, not just winnings. If you win less than £50k, you can have the money paid out to you via cheque at the post office. Depending on the situation, you may receive it in a lump sum or instalments. Anything over £50k, and an advisor will reach out to you to offer you support and help you along the process.

When playing lotto online you do not have to go through this hassle. Only if you win big amounts will you need to travel to the organizer's office to claim your money (all expenses paid for). In other instances, the lottery site will automatically transfer the money into your user balance, so you can decide yourself if you want to buy something nice or use it for new tickets.

Withdrawals are processed quickly, in most cases in less than 48 hours. If choosing to cash out your winnings, it is recommended that you open a secret, secure account and avoid using your everyday chequing account. Your bank more than likely has accounts and teams that deal with lottery winners and the 1%.

Biggest Jackpot Winners In History

From Eurojackpot to Mega Millions, there have been some impressive lottery record winnings. The biggest, record breaking win on a single ticket was around $758 million US dollars. One lady won this amount on her Powerball ticket. Other big wins include a $656 million US dollar win on Mega Millions, a £161.7 million single-ticket jackpot on the EuroMillions.

Jackpot

Lottery

Winner

Year

$758.7 million

Powerball

USA

2017

$656.0 million

Mega Millions

USA

2012

£161.7 million

EuroMillions

UK

2011

£81,0 million

Eurojackpot

Germany

2016

£66,0 million

Lotto

UK

2016

If you look at a list of the top values, you will notice it is namely American and British winners. These two countries are most known for their lotteries and therefore the jackpots in other countries just don’t compare.

If reading about these jackpot records and jackpot winners has got you excited, it’s time to start playing lottery online now! You have to be in it to win it, and you never know, it might be you!